


The Legend of Kyoshi's Paint

by slowdissolve



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 22:58:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10863840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slowdissolve/pseuds/slowdissolve





	The Legend of Kyoshi's Paint

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pixiestyx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiestyx/gifts).



Avatar Kyoshi, who came from a village in the southwest of the Earth Kingdom, grew up as a tall, lanky, awkward girl, always towering over the other children her age. A serious child, she did not enjoy the taunting of the others, particularly as they became older and began to flirt with each other. She was stoic, however, enduring the lonesome days as she grew taller and stronger, feeling ever more unlikely to find a love of her own. She lingered more often with older, wiser members of the village, and trained with her earth bending master gratefully.

When she was told at sixteen that she was the new Avatar, it came as a relief. She would be able to escape her little village and see more of the world.

Kyoshi traveled to the Fire Nation and the Air Nomads, mastering those elements with dedication and solemn respect for the duty that she had been given. She learned lava bending by studying with the Fire Nation Sages, a form of bending that had been rumored to exist, but so rare as to be legend. Air bending was difficult for her, as she was an earth bender by birth, but she mastered that too, as was the Avatar’s privilege. 

When she came to the Water Benders, she enjoyed sailing, going to as many islands and fjords and ports as she could in the time she had. She became a skilled pilot on a Water Tribe ship, and sometimes would sail out alone occasionally on trips to nearby islands.

Once she found herself in tropical waters, rather farther from usual, and came upon an island she had not known before. The inhabitants of the island were warm and welcoming. They greeted her with joy and took her in as their honored guest. They had not seen an Avatar on their island in many generations. Gurus taught on their island, and their teachings were similar in spirit to the Air Nomad monks. 

In all the places she had stayed around the world, people looked at the very tall, very strong young woman with a sense of awe, but as often as not, everyone was intimidated by her solemn look and great power. Challengers came and of course went, which only served to increase her reputation as fearsome. She was respected and treated with deference, but she continued to be lonely.

But as these islanders had not seen her before, nor heard of her reputation, they came to her without fear. In particular there was a girl with bright eyes and a constant smile who found ways to be near her as often as possible.

Her name was Madhupani, and she and Kyoshi became close friends. 

Kyoshi, at long last, was not lonesome. She laughed, and her eyes twinkled as she looked at her friend’s lovely face. She learned to dance the traditional dances of the islanders, and her long limbs were admired as she gracefully maneuvered the forms Madhupani had taught her.

She talked for hours, late into the nights, with Madhupani. They laughed about the antics of the young men, all seeking both their hands in marriage. They giggled at these boys, because they had come to seek each other out in the dark, to kiss and embrace, and were lovers in secret.

One night, however, Madhupani told her something that shocked Kyoshi.

As they lay on the beach on a blanket, Madhupani’s head on Kyoshi’s shoulder, warm together against the chill of the evening sea breeze, looking up at the southern stars, Madhupani told her that she had been betrothed to a man in another village on the island.

Kyoshi bolted upright, horrified. How could you? she said. How could you marry someone you never met? But Madhupani explained that this was the custom sometimes, to keep the peace between the villages of the large island. She was going to marry the man, she said, because she loved her people.

But I love you, Kyoshi protested. She wept bitterly, Madhupani holding her close. I wanted to take you home with me, she said, so that we could be together forever.

I would not survive where you live, Kyoshi, she said, gravely. I would miss my people, and wither like a leaf taken from the vine. Even now I see you sometimes look across the sea, and I know you miss your people after so long. You are who you are, Kyoshi, and I am who I am. We belong to our people. I will always love you, deep in my heart, and that will not go away. 

And I will never forget you, Kyoshi cried. But she wept the rest of the night.

The next day, her eyes dark from not sleeping, her face as long as it had ever been, Madhupani came to her with a box made of exotic dark wood.

I have a gift for you, my love, before you go.

In the box were a small brush and three small stone bowls. There were also little packets that she learned were pigments, white, red and black. Madhupani explained, these paints are for you, to put on your face as you go into the world to do your duty as the Avatar. While you have them on, no one will know your true face, and they will fear the mask, but not you. I came to love you without the mask. If you wear it, your opponents will fear your mask, but they will not know that the beauty underneath it is yours, and you will be able to find love without having the burden of your reputation.

She took Kyoshi outside her home, and as the sun rose, she gently painted Kyoshi’s face the bright white with the fearsome red and black eyes the world came to know as Kyoshi’s. They touched and kissed for the last time, and as Kyoshi boarded her ship, the islanders cheering and waving and wishing her good luck, she saw the bright smile and shining eyes of Madhupani, wet with her own tears. 

Kyoshi was never seen without her paint from that day forward, at least not away from her home. Whether she took it off there we do not know, but she taught the girls she took in to wear it too, to make them fearsome to those who would harass them, but keep their beauty safe for those who would come to love them.


End file.
